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Digital medium apt for marketing, but users still wary
NEW DELHI:While urging advertisers not to be daunted by the new media and learnt to adapt it to advantage, participants at a meet here on Digital Marketing said they were convinced that television would continue to be the primary medium for advertising for several more years. However, many of the speakers were confident that the Internet would gradually become the second largest advertising medium and would revolutionalise TV with the entry of Internet Protocol TV and other new media. Many of the speakers spoke of the gradual amalgamation of the media. They included Sam Balsara (Chairman & Managing Director, Madison), Arvind Rao (Chief Executive Officer & Co Founder, On Mobile), Dinesh Wadhawan (Managing Director & CEO, Times Internet Ltd), Gurtej Sandhu (Senior Vice President Digital, Star TV), Raj Nayak (Chief Executive Officer, NDTV Media), Gullu Sen (Vice Chairman, Dentsu India), Chaya Brian Carvalho (Managing Director & CEO, BC Web Wise), Giani said it was necessary to decide the direction those using the medium wanted to take since it was most engaging and interactive, while Menon felt that creativity implied the uses to which this medium could be put. The speakers were unanimous that the Digital Medium was making a real impact on marketing, promotion and customer acquisition efforts of most major brands in India. Some felt that the current definitions of creativity and the current training and experience of leaders in this area are not aligned with the notions of creativity for the digital medium.
Organised by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), the one-day meet titled ‘Digital Marketing: Wake up and Smell the Coffee‘ saw the participation of a large number of people from the world of advertising, marketing and broadcasting.
Sidharth Rao (CEO & Co-founder, Webchutney), Rajagopal Menon (COO, Contests2win), Bhavna Giani (Associate Creative Director, Mediaturf Worldwide), Jaspreet Bindra (Country Manager, Windows Live + MSN), Lloyd Mathias (Marketing Director, Motorola), Ashok Lalla (Director of Internet Marketing, Taj Hotels, Resorts & Palaces), Rohit Sharma (Chief Operating Officer, Zapak), D Shivakumar (Managing Director, Nokia India), Sameer Suneja (Head Marketing, Preffiti Van Melle India), and Rahul Agarwal (Director Marketing, Lenovo).
Balsara regretted that advertisers had still failed to sufficiently use digital marketing for brand advertising and understand its power and reach.
Carvalho and Agarwal did not agree that the Digital Medium was too functional to allow room for creativity, and said the situation was in fact quite the contrary. Carvalho said the Internet was a vehicle for self-expression and was in fact a most creative medium giving infinite space for creating new ideas. Agarwal regretted that traditional agencies had not been able to grasp the power of this new medium and regretted that very little money was being set aside for exploiting this medium or on research.
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With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
